A ladder is a familiar piece of equipment normally utilized by persons for reaching areas above ground or above floor level that are otherwise out of reach. Anyone who has climbed to the top of a long ladder, for example, twenty-five feet up a long extension ladder, knows that that effort is accompanied by danger of falling and getting seriously hurt or even killed. Particularly, in outdoor venues, bad weather or snow/ice may make this dangerous activity even more dangerous.
There are telecommunications company service personnel who have to climb ladders in order to perform their jobs out-of-doors, oftentimes responding during bad weather conditions which may have caused downed power or telecommunications lines, etc. Sometimes, such personnel even find it necessary to support the upper end of a ladder on a transverse, elevated telecommunications cable itself. This can compound the hazard even further, because a transverse or horizontal cable strung some twenty-five feet above ground between vertical poles offers a less stable support for an extension ladder than support provided by a vertical pole or a side of a building. There is, therefore, need for a ladder, such as an extension ladder, to incorporate a safety system which can reduce or prevent injury to someone falling from a ladder, regardless of why and how the ladder is being used.